It seems to be one of the most difficult things for many readers to get-- the idea that there can be characters that are fully assimilated yet still retain a strong sense of cultural identity.

Hmm, I wonder if the analogy of secular Jews would help? I (like a lot of US Jews), don't speak Hebrew, have only a few words of Yiddish, seldom go to synagogue, don't eat Kosher, and yet retain a strong sense of Jewish identity, do eat lots of traditional food, celebrate Jewish holidays, tell traditional jokes and stories. I have run into people who were not familiar with the whole "secular Jew" thing, but not many. At any rate, whether this particular analogy would be useful, I wonder if an author's note at the beginning of your submmisions would work as a gentle cluestick?

First prize was a nice contract so I figured what the hell. First step in the contest was submitting a "pitch" of your story. Got through that phase Second step was having a five thousand word excerpt reviewed by two Amazon Vine reviewers.

I think the problem here is that this is not the way any other submission would work. If you submit on proposal, an editor would get three chapters and a synopsis. If you submit a full manuscript, well, the editor has the full manuscript to see how things turn out.

I'm surprised it was based on only two opinions, frankly. And the problem is, since this is not a traditional submission, the second reviewer doesn't have a chance to call an agent or the author and say, "Hey, let's talk about this, I like your writing, but..."

I'm sorry, babe.

You might hate me for asking this, and it might even be a fucking stupid question on the level of opening my work and going "Oh, dag, wheelchairs again?!" but would you feel like you were prostituting your work if you *did* name them Lupe and Paco?(or, you know, something people could glom onto that you like more) I mean, if the name thing is shorthand for people not understanding about Hispanic culture, that is not likely to help much, but maybe their names are creating unintended static? Margaret Mitchell initially had Scarlett O'Hara as "Pansy" but her publisher said, outside the South, that meant a dude that had the gay.

I'm surprised it was based on only two opinions, frankly. And the problem is, since this is not a traditional submission, the second reviewer doesn't have a chance to call an agent or the author and say, "Hey, let's talk about this, I like your writing, but..."

Well, and another part of the problem is that we're talking two people who might've gotten their top reviewer status for reviewing toasters, for all I know. On the one hand, the thought that it wasn't a traditional submission was an appealing one if only because (in theory at least) we're talking real readers. On other, however, it's clear that many of these reviewers don't have a clue in hell HOW to review. Mine, at least, were coherent and on the offensive scale, fairly low down. If you want to be simultaneously entertained and appalled, check out this thread on the amazon board where people were posting their reviews. The first one alone is a lulu, but by no means is it the only one:

[link]

would you feel like you were prostituting your work if you *did* name them Lupe and Paco?(or, you know, something people could glom onto that you like more)

First off, not a stupid question and definitely not hating you. And yeah, I think in this particular case, it would feel like prostituting because the names are very deliberately chosen. Libby is short for Liberty because her mother is a Cuban hippy and in fact, Libby's middle name is Estrella. And Nick's full name is Nicholas Miguel Azarias which is mentioned fairly early on-- the point is, these two have names that reflect their backgrounds-- that of being second generation, Cuban-Americans who are assimilated yet maintain a strong cultural identity.

Besides, the reviewer glomming onto the names and use of Spanish as something that bothers them-- I'm not sure that opinion would be changed even if they'd had more of the manuscript to read. I had people who read Adiós and objected to ANY of the Spanish in there-- didn't understand why it was in there at all because who would understand it anyway and why didn't I just write the whole book in Spanish?

And Typo, no, I wouldn't put anything like that in the author's notes-- I prefer not to use the Clue-by-Four quite so obviously and frankly, again, with the entire manuscript, it shouldn't be necessary.

Well, I wish they'd have asked me. But I have about twelve Amazon reviews.

I wonder if people complained about the Lapine in Watership Down. How awful it must be to live in a world where you take offense at any language other than your own.

Besides, the reviewer glomming onto the names and use of Spanish as something that bothers them-- I'm not sure that opinion would be changed even if they'd had more of the manuscript to read. I had people who read Adiós and objected to ANY of the Spanish in there-- didn't understand why it was in there at all because who would understand it anyway and why didn't I just write the whole book in Spanish?

I think it's because they don't equate the Spanish phrases as the same sort of shorthand they use. My best friend is Hispanic, born in California, last name of Soto, but no one in her family (except for her) speak any Spanish outside of endearments like mija or mijo. Short phrases like estas listo? No lo se. Me gusta. Stuff that you can communicate as much with body language as with words. The only reason my friend speaks any more Spanish than the rest of her family is because she lived with her grandmother for a while and asked her to teach her Spanish.

So folks don't equate "mija/mijo" to "kiddo." They don't equate "listo?" while picking up your coat and purse to "ready?" Or "no lo se" with a shrug to "dunno."

IOW, people r dum. They don't look beyond their own house's four walls and even then they don't see what's around them.

One evening on the bus one man went into a rant over the fact that the local grocery store has the aisles identified in Spanish as well as English. sigh.

Hubby will go off when public events have people who don't speak English have interpreters when addressing the group. "Is there an interpreter for the Vietnamese person? How about the Bengali person? Or the Latvian!" Hubby has weird racism issues that haven't borne close inspection. To his minimal credit, he'd probably be just as obnoxious about English/French signs near Quebec. Or German/English signs in Germany (but then he knows German).